Jewel in the Rough!

Carmine Jewel Cherries have to be the prettiest. I have three small plants–they are in their second year. The Cupid one got disseminated by grackles (they actually made a hole in the net and ate all the cherries in about 5 minutes…). I was able to harvest 3 small bowls full this week from the Carmine.

So beautiful!

So I made a cherry cheesecake, from scratch. We will get fat tonight 🙂 For the topping, I pitted the cherries, boiled 1/2 cup of orange juice with 1/2 cup of white sugar (2 tsps cornstarch mixed in the sugar), added the cherries and boiled for 2 minutes, let cool, and put on the cheesecake. Refrigerate for 2 hours. Cannot wait to make Haskap Cheesecake!

The veggie patch is coming along faster than I can keep up. Today, I harvested boxes of peas, 4 garbage bags full of greens (the dog breeder mixes them with wild venison, wild goose, and wild salmon to make absolutely perfect dog food, and we get some dog food in trade for the veggies), some broccoli, and I made 16 cups of strawberry/rhubarb jam.

Not to be outdone, the red cabbage (covered with row cover to protect against the egg-laying little white moths) is doing beautifully. I cook it with apples and little honey for a veggie/fruit relish on the plate. My Dutch mother always cooked her red cabbage with apples. It’s really good that way.